A real bear and drugs falling from the sky: The wild true story behind the new movie, Cocaine Bear.

The premise of Elizabeth Banks' new film Cocaine Bear is completely absurd: A black bear ingests a ridiculously large amount of abandoned cocaine in the woods, and proceeds to go batshit - or should we say bearshit - crazy. High on coke and seeking more, the super-charged bear terrorises everyone and everything in its path, with very deadly and very gory consequences.

It sounds so stupid.

I CAN'T WAIT TO WATCH IT.

Check out the insane trailer for Cocaine Bear. Story continues below.

What makes this story even more unbelievable is that it is (somewhat) true. 

Here's everything we know.

Was there REALLY a cocaine bear?

Yes, there was. 

What, really really?

Yep, really really.

How did a bear get hold of cocaine? 

According to Knoxville News Sentinel, on September 9, 1985, a drug smuggler named Andrew Thornton II and his karate instructor slash bodyguard Bill Leonard flew to Monteria, Colombia, to pick up 400 kilograms of cocaine. Thornton, who was a former narcotics officer and lawyer, planned to smuggle the drugs into the US.

In an interview with Leonard in 1990, he claimed he had no prior knowledge of where the pair were heading that day and that he would not have agreed to the plan if he had known. Thornton sprung the news on him mid-flight.

"He said, 'We're not going to the Bahamas. The look on his face was hard to explain. He was smiling, but he had a very intense look in his eyes, and he was watching me very closely," Leonard said.

When the small Cessna plane landed in Monteria, armed men swarmed them. They loaded the plane with the cocaine which were "wrapped in yellow plastic, packed into burlap bags, stuffed inside duffel bags and outfitted with parachutes."

According to Leonard, as the pair were flying back to the US, they heard over the radio that federal agents were following their plane. Leonard kicked out three bags of cocaine, causing a huge argument.

"Right at that time, when it looks like we're going to rip each other's throats out, he just starts laughing. I don't know what happened. I started laughing. The next thing I know, we're both rolling in the plane, laughing, with tears coming out of our eyes," Leonard said. "He turned around and said, 'I'm really sorry for getting you involved in this. I can see this is not your thing... You're a family man. Just do what I tell you, and I'll get you out'."

Thornton instructed Leonard to dump three duffel bags of cocaine from the plane. Then he tied the remaining bag of cocaine to his body and the two parachuted out from the plane, which was on autopilot, as it flew over Knoxville (hence why Knoxville News Sentinel covered the story in detail). The plane would go on to crash in North Carolina.

Leonard landed near the airport, and made his way to the Hyatt hotel downtown, which was the designated meeting point. Thornton never showed up. Two days later, it became obvious why.

On the morning of September 11, a man found the body of Thornton in his backyard. Baffled police officers were quickly on the scene. There were a lot of questions: Who was he? How did he get there? What was he doing with cocaine on him? 

Once Thornton was identified that afternoon, authorities pieced the story together. The plane key in Thornton's pocket matched the plane wreckage in North Carolina. Investigators scoured the woods and surrounding areas to see if there was more cocaine. They found some of it hanging from a parachute in Georgia, but it wasn't until months later that more duffel bags of cocaine were located.

By that time though, there was not much cocaine left. Because a 175-pound black bear had discovered the abandoned duffels, rummaged through the packaging, and ingested the drugs.

Unlike its fictional film counterpart, the cocaine bear promptly died from an overdose. It was discovered lying dead next to the nearly empty bags approximately four weeks after its death.

"There's nothing left but bones and a big hide," Gary Garner of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation told The Associated Press.

You'd think that would be the end of the story... but you'd be wrong.

What happened to the body of the cocaine bear?

Thirty years later, a US retailer named Kentucky for Kentucky decided to get hold of the bear. They reached out to the investigative bureau, which directed them to the medical examiner. The ME had given the bear to a hunting friend, who in turn had the bear taxidermised and put on display at a recreation centre.

A fire at the centre caused the bear to be relocated to a neighbouring town, where it went missing. It then resurfaced in the home of country singer Waylon Jennings. The singer gifted the bear to a friend, and when that friend died, it was put up for auction.

When Kentucky for Kentucky finally located the bear, it was a decorative piece in a traditional Chinese medical shop in Reno. The woman who owned the store - and the bear - did not particularly like the bear anyway and agreed to sell it for $200 in shipping costs.

The bear is now on display at the Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall in Lexington. 

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With the upcoming release of Cocaine Bear in cinemas, the mall has certainly been taking advantage of the fact it houses the REAL cocaine bear, selling merchandise like hats and T-shirts bearing the words "cocaine bear". It's a rather sad end for this majestic creature.

We can only hope that the end of the fictional cocaine bear is much happier - maybe some rehab time and a memoir of its adventures with cocaine? It can then use the proceeds to buy a retirement cottage in the woods.

Cocaine Bear is in cinemas from Thursday February 23.

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